STATUS AND PROSPECTS OF KAREZ IRRIGATION1

ABSTRACT: The karez is a traditional irrigation water source, consisting of hand-dug horizontal wells, that is still used in parts of South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. This paper describes the construction, management, and current problems of karez irrigation systems based on investigations conducted in Baluchistan Province, Pakistan. While karezes have served irrigation needs well in the past, they are now threatened by high costs of labor for construction and maintenance, and by the encroachment of tubewells which lower the water tables on which the karez systems depend. Possible methods for improving karez performance and needs for research are discussed.     

A groundwater flow model for water resources management in the Ismarida plain,North Greece

This paper presents the development of a regional flow simulation model of the stream–aquifer system of Ismarida plain, northeastern Greece. It quantifies the water budget for this aquifer system and describes the components of groundwater and the characteristics of this system on the basis of results of a 3-year field study. The semiconfined aquifer system of Ismarida Lake plain consists of unconsolidated deltaic clastic sediments, is hydraulically connected with Vosvozis River, and covers an area of 46.75 km². The annual precipitation ranges in the study area from 270 to 876 mm. Eighty-seven irrigation wells are densely located and have been widely used for agricultural development. Groundwater flow in this aquifer was simulated with MODFLOW. Model calibration was done with observed water levels, and match was excellent. To evaluate the impacts of the current pumping schedule and propose solutions, four management scenarios were formulated and tested with the model. Based on model results, the simulated groundwater budget indicates that there must be approximately 33% decrease of withdrawals to stop the dramatic decline of groundwater levels. The application of these scenarios shows that aquifer discharge to the nearby river would be very low after a 20-year period.     

Synthesis and spatial dynamics of socio-economic metabolism and land use change of Taipei Metropolitan Region

Ever since the concept of metabolism was extended from biological science by social scientists to analyze human systems, socio-economic metabolism has been extensively applied to explore resource consumption, asset accumulation, waste emissions, and complex processes of land use change in a socio-economic system. Current research in socio-economic metabolism and land use change has used accounting approaches for macroscopic comparisons of countries and regions. However, socio-economic metabolism has seldom been applied to the analysis of land use change. To simulate the spatial-temporal dynamics of socio-economic metabolism and land use change, this study adopts a spatial system modeling method to develop a Socio-Economic Metabolism and Land Use Change (SEMLUC) model for the Taipei Metropolitan Region. The simulation results illustrate that the Taipei Metropolitan Region is highly dependent on inflows of non-renewable energy and exhibits a spatial hierarchy of non-renewable energy consumption centering on Taipei's Main station. Additionally, urban assets provide feedback to natural and agricultural systems to extract additional resource inflows which, driven by the maximum power principle, accelerate the convergence of energy flows toward urban assets. Accumulating urban assets also facilitates inflows of non-renewable material to nearby cells thereby enhancing land use conversion to urban areas. This work also demonstrates the capability of ArcGIS software in simulating socio-economic metabolism and land use change in an urban system.     

Modeling a wetland system: The case of Keoladeo National Park (KNP), India

A model for the wetland part of KNP is presented and analyzed. Two-dimensional parameter scans suggest that this minimal model possesses dynamical complexities. Per capita availability of water to “bad” biomass (W₁) is one of the most vital parameters. One can ensure good health of the park by restricting the par capita availability of water to low values. Getting the “bad” biomass removed by granting permits to villagers should go hand in hand with water management and conservation activities. The model presented in this paper may be helpful in designing the timing and nature of human interventions in the form of implementation of well worked out policies in future.     

DAD IS OUT,POP IS IN1

ABSTRACT: Two major challenges face today's water professionals. The first is finding solutions to increasingly complicated water resources problems. The second challenge is nontechnical. It is effective interaction with the public recognizing both the public's increasingly elevated goals relative to water and the public's growing understanding of water science and technology. The traditional DAD approach, that is, decide-announce-defend, is no longer appropriate. The much more progressive, and inclusive POP approach, that is, public owns project, is more likely to be effective given the changing nature of the public's expectations and knowledge. A water resources planning or design effort that fails to include a public interaction program plans to fail. Described in this paper are three suggested objectives of the POP approach, namely demonstrating awareness, gathering supplemental data and information, and building a base of support. Having established specific objectives for a particular water resources project, appropriate public interaction programs and events must be selected, scheduled, and implemented. Many and varied programs and events are described in the paper.     

Scientific collectives in region-building processes

During the last 30 years, growing demand for science-based policy making has contributed to the mobilization of scientific cooperation alongside transnational political arrangements for addressing environmental issues. Following the contemporary trend toward regionalizing environmental policy and practice, many of these scientific joint efforts have focused on a regional scale. This article examines regional scientific cooperation in the context of the institutionalization of mountain regions in Europe. Such cooperation can be observed from the Pyrenees to Central Asia, albeit with a degree of variation that largely remains unexplored in scientific research. Sometimes scientific cooperation served to lay the groundwork of a mountain policy initiative, other times it appeared in its wake; some examples appear as loose networks of individual scientists, others are set up as formalized monitoring and observation centers; finally, some scientific joint efforts are formally linked to, or incorporated in a mountain policy initiative, while others are largely independent. The article proposes a new typology for understanding the interactions between regional scientific mobilization and regional policy making and provides up-to-date portraits of six main cases.     

Tolerating castration by hiding flowers in plain sight

A key challenge in the study of inter-specific cooperation, or mutualisms, is to understand the mechanisms that prevent cheating. However, many mutualisms are still invaded by parasites, and we propose that plant ‘tolerance strategies’, which allow an individual to re-grow and/or reproduce after damage, might have evolved to recover some of the fitness lost to parasitism. We focus on the ant plant Cordia nodosa and its protecting ant symbionts Allomerus octoarticulatus and Azteca spp. Allomerus is a castration parasite, destroying host flowers. However, some flowers are produced on new branch shoots, where they escape castration. Here, we ask whether C. nodosa tolerates castration by directing floral growth to new shoots. We find that C. nodosa produces four times more floral buds on the new shoots of Allomerus-inhabited plants, compared to Azteca-inhabited plants. Additionally, on Allomerus-inhabited plants, the production of floral buds is three times greater on new than on mature shoots, and more floral buds are grown on plants with new shoots than on those without. We conclude therefore that C. nodosa tolerates castration by re-allocating floral resources to new shoots. We also test whether tolerance exploits behavioural differences between the brood-tending ‘nurse’ ant worker caste, which is active on mature shoots, and the new shoot-protecting ‘patroller’ caste. Behavioural assay experiments reveal that nurse ants are strongly attracted to extracts of flowers, whereas patrollers are not, suggesting that nurses are the primary castrating caste. Thus, producing flowers on new shoots avoids the castrating caste. We finish by proposing that tolerance strategies can promote the evolution and maintenance of mutualism.     

水质条件对膜-羧基官能团之间微观作用力的影响特征

为了探讨pH值、离子强度及膜材料对膜-污染物间相互作用力的影响特征,利用自制的典型膜污染物羧基官能团胶体探针,结合原子力显微镜定量考察了羧基官能团与PVDF及EVOH超滤膜间的相互作用力随pH值及离子强度的变化特征.结果表明:带有羧基基体的污染物与PVDF及EVOH超滤膜之间的相互作用力皆随着pH值的增大而减小;但是上述作用力随着离子强度的增加呈现特殊的变化趋势:在离子强度为0~10mmol/L时,膜-带有羧基基体的污染物之间相互作用力随着离子强度的增加而增大;在离子强度为10~500mmol/L时,膜-羧基之间相互作用力随着离子强度的增大而减小.在特定的水质条件下,EVOH-羧基间的作用力远小于PVDF-羧基之间的作用力.     

Flow and transport in fractured tuff at Yucca Mountain: numerical experiments on fast preferential flow mechanisms

Recent discovery of bomb-related ³⁶Cl at depth in fractured tuff in the unsaturated zone at the Yucca Mountain candidate high-level waste (HLW) repository site has called into question the usual modeling assumptions based on the equivalent continuum model (ECM). A dual continuum model (DCM) for simulating transient flow and transport at Yucca Mountain is developed. In order to ensure properly converged flow solutions, which are used in the transport simulation, a new flow solution convergence criteria is derived. An extensive series of simulation studies is presented which indicates that rapid movement of solute through the fractures will not occur unless there are intense episodic infiltration events. Movement of solute in the environs of the repository is enhanced if the properties of the tuff layer at the repository horizon are modified from current best-estimate values. Due to a large advective–dispersive coupling between the matrix and fractures, the matrix acts as a major buffer which inhibits rapid transport along the fractures. Consequently, fast movement of solutes through the fractures to the repository depth can only be explained if the matrix–fracture coupling term is significantly reduced from a value that would be calculated on the basis of data currently available.     

Parameterization of the roughness length over the sea in forced and free convection

In the condition of free convection, the Charnock relation is inadequate. In this paper we extend the Charnock relation to include the effect of free convection on the roughness length. As a result, the singularity in the Monin–Obukhov similarity theory can be avoided. This paper shows two approaches to derive the roughness length formula in the forced and free convections. The first approach is based on the mixing length theory and the use of the observational data of the vertical velocity variance. We introduce a new vertical velocity scale based on the vertical velocity variance; this velocity variance is well behaved in the atmospheric boundary layer and easy to obtain from field experiments. The second approach is based on the theoretical framework of Sykes et al. (Q R Met Soc, 119: 409–421). From that framework, we develop a theory to obtain the roughness length formula. The results of these two approaches are in agreement with each other. In the past, a multiplication factor associated with free convection was considered to be a constant. This paper shows that this multiplication factor is, in fact, also dependent on the depth of the mixing height. In previous studies, experimental works were often conducted without taking into account the depth of the mixing height. Not taking into account the mixing height in the estimation of the roughness length in free convection would result in an inaccurate estimate of the roughness length and hence the drag coefficient. An erratum to this article can be found at